Compulsive Gaming

The success of massively multiplayer games coined “heroinware,” such as Everquest, Diablo II, and World of Warcraft has come at a price for players. It is not uncommon to hear of a gamer who is so addicted that he has lost his girlfriend, job, or wife. The addictive trap stems from endless quests for status and power. Each goal brings along a new goal and one feels as if they’ve wasted their time if they do not complete the next task, a phenomenon called sunken cost. Simply deleting you character is generally not enough to stop the addictive behavior. Because of the ease of buying another game and creating a new character this act is similar to throwing away a pack of cigarettes as a method of smoking cessation. Most individuals who have arrived at this page know they have a problem and have tried to do something about it without success. Controlling the amount of time spent gaming is much more difficult than most people realize, and most people who try to manage this behavior fail.

A wide range of information and tools are available free of charge by following the links in the right column.

• Bill's PIG Review provides summaries of the professional literature on topics pertaining to the Problem of Immediate Gratification.
• The "Listen Now" section contains two free hypnotic inductions that you may download for use on an MP3 player to evoke states of focused attention and relaxation respectively.
• Other invitations to experience phenomena directly (rather than conceptualizing them abstractly) are presented in the right column and throughout this web site. They are designed to help you develop your capability to exercise will. The procedural skills you will develop by accepting these invitations will enable you to make the irreversible changes required to achieve good long-term outcome.
  

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"No man is free who cannot command himself."